


Hey! As told by Gems

by OneCoolCat



Series: Hey! As told by Gems [2]
Category: As Told By Ginger, Hey Arnold!, Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Bad Writing, Bad guys, Coming of Age, Costumes, Eating, F/M, Fantasy, Fiction Writing, German pastries, Laser Tag, School Play, Seren's memories, Shopping, Slice of Life, Sword Fighting, Temporary Amnesia, This is not reincarnation, downtown, fic of a fic, food groups, horrible episode title, lol, lots of running, super powers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-23
Updated: 2019-08-21
Packaged: 2020-07-11 17:40:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 15,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19931938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OneCoolCat/pseuds/OneCoolCat
Summary: Episode 2 of Hey! As told by GemsSeren and Xanthe ditch a school play and things go down from thereFIRST: I have to say that, I got this idea from reading Reverberations by ThatDastardlyCerberus. You should also check out Three Gems and Four babies.Also, check out Practically-pearlperfect (Madam_Violet) who also had some ideas after reading Reverberations. Little Stars and Reverberation shots.Long story short, this is just a fict on the four diamonds doing stuff. Following after the second to last war, which caused Steven to be separated from his gem, then after the last war that destroyed the Crystal Gems and somehow the diamonds reform into babies, Taffy and her husband, Sterling takes care of the diamonds. Fast forward 14 years later, we see how they're going about with their lives *shrugs* Nothing more. This is just something to read, if you have nothing else to read and you're waiting for your main ficts to come out. Welp, hope y'all like this even at least a teeny tiny bit *thumbs up*





	1. Downtown laser light

**Author's Note:**

> Paying homage to:  
> Steven Universe season 1 episode 2: Laser Light Cannon  
> Hey Arnold season 1 episode 1: Downtown as fruits

Seren was stuck in another one of her memories. Ever since her first memory emerged two weeks ago, she's since had two other memories. One of them emerged when she was in gym class. They were performing a few swim stroke exercises and she zoned out and soon found herself standing at the bottom of what looked like a pool. Three pairs of legs was dipped into the water as the three mysterious figures sat on the edge. She couldn't make out the color of these figures. The color scheme of her memory consisted of, black and white and various hues of blue from the water. 

She was singing something. She didn't know what exactly, but she was just singing away. She heard three muffled voices as they talked over top of each other, trying to be the first one to guess which song she was singing. That was a short, happy memory. The gym teacher wasn't very happy though, fishing her out of the bottom of the pool. 

The second memory, which came to her a few days ago, as a dream, was of her running away from someone. She was running down a yellow corridor, that seemed to stretch for miles. She wasn't sure what happened exactly, but somehow she could vaguely remember some controls breaking in a room. Another person.. gem? was running beside her, but she couldn't see her face. The person/gem kept looking back. 

"I, I don't think she liked that prank very much." Seren stammered out. "..But in hindsight, maybe I shouldn't had used her control room." 

"I must agree with you on that, my d-" her pink friend was cut off by the tall, figure behind them. 

"PINK!!!!!" the figure shouted. 

They started running faster. 

"But you shouldn't reprimand yourself. It was just a minor mistake." said the pink figure.

"A minor mistake with huge damages.." said Seren, They turned down a corner and ran into a dead end. They turned around, their backs against the wall, watching the shadow as it got closer and closer towards them. Seren crouched down, covering her head with her arms as she shut her eyes tightly. 

"You!" shouted the distorted voice. 

Seren felt a large hand grab her.

That was a scary memory. Granted, a nightmare about a prank going wrong and the person going after you for it is NOTHING compared to what.. Xanthe, Nila and ESPECIALLY Blanca has had nightmares of; nevertheless, the dream was still pretty startling and that day, Seren had thought to herself that now that her memories were coming back, that it really was only a matter of time before some serious, scary, stomach wrenching memories started coming to the fore. 

..........

In this particular memory, Seren was surfing. She could still see the shiny, golden sand while out at sea. She was "hanging ten", as she surfed her way down the 20 foot wave towards the stretch of sand. The wind was blowing through her thick curls and her dress fluttered in the wind. 

There was someone else behind her. A tall, slim character and a slight hint of blue, pink and yellow glinted at the corner of Seren's eye. There was no way that she was going to let this vaguely familiar character beat her! She narrowed her eyes, a devious grin on her face, as she shred the water on the way down. 

The wave started to fold down, curving around her and she started to tube ride closer to the shore. The figure disappeared behind her as she surfed down the now hollow curve of the huge wave. She could see the wave closing in, in front of her and she adjusted her stance, without tipping over and falling under the waves. A yelp from behind her went completely unnoticed by her, her attention fully on having fun at the beach and winning. She picked up a bit more speed and managed to come out of the curl, the wave crashing in on itself immediately after. Some of the people on the beach were gawking at Seren's flawless and effortless moves. They started whistling and clapping at her. 

She passed a handful of people who were picking up shells and splashing in the shallow waters. Her pace slowed and she jumped off of her board and into the warm, clear water. Cheering, whistling and clapping continued as the crowd of people started running towards Seren. A tanned, well built man with dark brown, wavy hair was in front of them. 

Seren smiled at him. "Hey, Mr. Fry man!! Give me the bits!" she shouted gleefully to him. 

"Seren. You're STILL calling me that?" he chuckled a bit. "That fry incident happened ages ago. Anyway, here's a sash." and he threw it over her. It read, beach city, jade. The jade in italics. "And here's...." he reached into his bag. "the bits!" he jumped up to match her tall height and threw two handfuls of confetti at Seren. The crowd roared louder.

"This is soo awesome!!" She shouted. "And I'll put this with the others." she hummed, smoothing out her sash. 

Some choking was heard behind her. They looked back and the same tall, slim figure that was with Seren earlier was crawling out of the water. Her damp, pale pink hair covering her face. The Polynesian guy shook his head. "Tch, tch, tch. You broke 4 out of 7 rules of surfing. THAT'S why you wiped out." he said. 

An annoyed groan came out of the figure. She got up, her hair still blocking her face. One of the beach goers gave her a towel and she started drying her face off. 

Seren giggled. "Yeah.. 'dude'. You like, totally ate it." She giggled even more at the lingo she was using, completely oblivious that _that _kind of surfer talk was more of a stereotype of the coast of California and not of the islands of Hawaii.__

____

____

The towel still on her face, a muffled. "I was not at fault here! It was the water! It must have a mind of its on!" 

The guy gave a guffaw. "He who is on the canoe is responsible for the journey, whether he has a paddle or not." 

A muffled "Uh.. wha?" 

Seren changed the subject to something that just popped up in her mind. "Hey, FM. Isn't that annual surfing tournament coming up? I know I missed it last year due to.. circumstances, but I'll be here for it this time! I hope it's not too late to be in it." 

"You still have time to sign up for it. But take it easy on them when you're out there, okay?" 

"Shoots!" said Seren, she waved her hand, palm up with her thumb and pinky out, as the three fingers were down against her palm. 

The crowd started cheering again. 

........

"Cut, cut, cut!!" Seren heard Miranda say as her memory started fading into the present. 

"Huh?"

"Get off the stage!" 

The crowd of kids started laughing and Seren slinked off towards the back of the stage near the group of kids and right by Xanthe. Blanca and Nila were on the other side.

Miranda sighed. "Okay, lets' pick it up from the dance of the vegetables. A, five, six, seven, eight.-" 

The final bell started to ring and Miranda started mumbling angrily to herself. 

The students starting making their way to the back of the stage to leave. 

"NOT so fast." Miranda stopped them. 

"Come on, Miranda. We know our lines." said a chubby kid. He was wearing gray shorts, a white shirt that didn't cover up all of his stomach, a small, blue hat turned backwards and a blue jacket with the letter H (for Harold) on the left side in red. 

"Know your lines?" She snickered, walking up to him. "Why, of _course_ you know your lines.. But I don't want to just _hear_ your lines." She stepped up to his face. "I want to hear what's in your souls!!" 

He flinched. 

"Do vegetables even _have_ souls?" asked another kid behind her. 

She snapped around and was now in his face. "Don't be a smart aleck. Our audience will want to see a breathtaking performance and THAT is what we're gonna give 'em." She turned and pointed at Nila. "Nila, what's your motivation?" 

"Uh, I'm not quite sure.. I'm just a blueberry." 

Miranda ran up to another student. "Stinky, what's in your character's guts?" 

He fainted. 

She scoffed. "That's just what I thought.. You all bite." she pinched the bridge of her nose and looked up at the group. "Okay, listen up. I want EVERY and I mean EVERY kid in here an hour early so we can do another run through. And if _anybody_ is late." she said, gravelly. She specifically turned to Seren and Xanthe. "They're going to have to listen to Old." she raised her fist to their face. "Betsy." flames swirled around her hand. 

The two looked at each other. Seren, a horrified look and Xanthe, a look of disinterest. 

.........

"Come on, Seren! Blanca and Nila already left us!" shouted Xanthe from the screen door. 

"Just a sec!" Xanthe heard some hurried shuffling in her room, then the door opened. Seren walked step by step down the steps, her pudgy costume making it hard for her to walk. "Sorry. This custome was pretty hard to put on. She adjusted her hat. A red hat sprinkled with yellow dots for seeds. 

"Whatever.. Let's just go and get this stupid, humiliating play over with." 

Seren squeezed pass her and Xanthe pressed the lock in the bottom knob and closed the door. 

They walked down the steps and started towards the nearest bus stop, the opposite way from where they would take their school bus. Xanthe groaned. "I STILL can't believe we have to do this and under none other than Miranda's REIGN no less. It's just not fair. It was actually PROVEN that she was the one who had corrupted that girl and what happens? She barely gets a slap on the wrist! I'm telling you, Seren, there's something with that girl or she knows the police or the government or something. Otherwise, there's no way she would've gotten of scot free." 

Seren fidgeted with her strawberry costume. "Well.. I guess it does sound pretty fishy.." 

"Of course it is.. Otherwise, she wouldn't even be in charge of this obnoxious play that we just have to be a part of.. I mean, even dressing up as bread or some type of beverage would've been better." 

"Yeah." Seren agreed. "I could've been an energy drink or pomegranate juice." 

"Yeah, well.. we're fruits. And that's as simple as that.. Oh, shoot! Come on, we're about to miss the bus!" 

They ran up a few feet, barely catching the bus. They put the bus fare in the machine and started walking to the back. 

"Everyone's staring.." whispered Xanthe.. "And in a few hours, the whole student body will be laughing at us." she added. 

"Mm, I don't think it's THAT bad.. I think the outfits are kinda cute. They're just.. a tad bit uncomfortable.. And this is our first play! Aren't you just a liiiittle teeeeeny tiny bit excited?" 

"No." 

They sat down at the very back of the bus. 

"But you look sooo cute in your banana costume. And those yellow clogs go very well with your eyes." She said gleefully. 

"Seren, stop. We're in High School. We shouldn't be dressed as fruits." she sat back, looking out the window. "And there's NOTHING we can do about it.. nothing." she sighed. 

An older lady pulled a cord hanging down from the top of the bus and the bell rung for the next stop. The bus came to a stop and she got off. 

Seren looked at a very uneasy Xanthe and she looked at the cord, then back at her. "Unleeeeess." she sing song. 

Xanthe scrunched up her face in a scowl. "Unless what?" 

Seren gave a mischievous grin. "Mmmlllet's just say we forgot to pull that cord up there."Seren pointed at the cord beside Xanthe. "And we didn't get off at this stop, or the next stop or the next!" she leaned in towards Xanthe and whispered. "By the time the bus heads back up, the play would be over." 

"No, we couldn't do that.. It would ruin the play. And as much as I despise this play, I can't just _not_ go. That will be the irresponsible thing to do." 

"Aw, come oooon. There will be other quote unquote "obnoxious" ." she made air quotes "plays to be a part of. But how about you and I just have a bit of fun and not go! That'll definitely get you out of your funk." 

"I'll be out of my _'funk'_ after the play is over." 

The school came into view and she raised her arm up to the cord. 

Seren looked out the window beside Xanthe. "Well, you pretty much said that you DON'T want to be in this play.. And if we just so happen to miss our stop, Miranda won't be downtown to stop us. In fact, it'll just be you. me and the various adventures of downtown!" she nearly shouted. 

A couple behind them looked back at her, then turned back. 

The bus stopped to let two more people off, then pulled off again. 

"I said, no, Seren. WE have to go to this play." her hand was close to the cord, but she was hesitant. 

"Okay, but I'm just saying. It would be fun to kinda hang out, just you and I. And we _don't_ have to worry about Miranda making fun of _YOU_ or of _ME_ , again, like she did earlier, if I may add." she pressed on. 

Xanthe grabbed onto the cord, squeezing the rubber material. She looked torn, her face in a thinking scowl. 

Seren watched on. 

Xanthe let go of the cord and sat back in her seat hard, her arms crossed.. The bus passed the school. 

"Just ONE stop." said Xanthe. "THEN, we're getting off and taking the next bus back." 

.......

The audience was trickling in as everyone at the back of the stage was getting ready for the play. They all had on their costumes and were going over their lines. 

Miranda looked at her watch. _6:45p.m_ "People, people!" she clapped to get everyone's attention. They gave her their undivided attention. "Now remember. A play has a life of its own. It's got to _breaaaaathe_ " She inhaled and exhaled deeply. She started walking towards the crowd. "Every food group must build upon the group that came before it. First, the legumes." She walked towards two kids; one dressed as a peapod and the other, a string bean.

"Legumes? But I thought we were beans.." said one of the kids to the other. 

"You are, genius!" she shouted. Then she walked past three kids; one dressed as a baked chicken leg, the one in the middle dressed as a huge slab of beef and the other, as a lamb chop. "Then we have the meats, hearty and powerful!" She continued to walk."Then the fruits." she did a double take. "Where's the rest of the fruits?" 

Nila stood there, engulfed in a round ball of blue, with a blue hat, thick, blue stockings and a dark blue pair of Mary Jane shoes."They aren't here, Miranda. They never showed up." 

"What?" she said through clenched teeth, staring at Nila. "Where are they?!"

Nila did what looked to be a shrug in her costume. "We left them at the house, but they should be on their way." 

Miranda walked away, rubbing her temples. "Those two are soo gonna get it." she whispered to herself, started warming up. She didn't realize her costume was melting until the costume started to melt a bit onto her arms. She stop, realizing what she was doing. She looked at her tomato costume, a bit messed up and melted. "Just great.." 

.

Blanca walked over to Nila. 

"Do you think they're okay? Nila asked. 

"I do hope so." She shook her head. "I knew we should've waited for them. I just knew it." she sighed. "Now we just have to hope that they'll be here in time for the play." She tried to cross her arms. The boxy milk carton folding in on itself as she did. 

..... 

"Hey, how far does this bus go, anyway?" asked Xanthe, looking out the window. 

"I'on'know." Seren laid back. "But what difference does it make? We already passed more than your 'one' stop. When the bus gets to the end of the line, we'll just ride it back up." she turned to Xanthe and in a mocking voice, she said "The journey is the destination, man." 

"And that means what, exactly?" asked Xanthe, her hands still crossed since the time she pulled the bell. 

"Not sure. But I heard it in a hippie movie once." 

The bus screeched to a halt and Seren fell back against the seat. Xanthe kept her balance.

"Hey, what's going on?" asked Seren. 

They exited off the bus and found themselves at a bus depot station.

"Seren! This is the end of the line!" she yelled. 

"Yeaaah.. it looks like we're stuck..." Seren fiddled with the leaves along the collar of her costume. 

"Stuck.. Downtown.. as fruits.." she started walking away from Seren. "You and your stupid hippie movies.. Come on, let's try to find a payphone. This station has to have at least one of them somewhere." 

"Good idea!" Seren piped up. 

They found a payphone at the front of the building. Xanthe held the phone up to her ear. _no dial tone._ She pulled the phone cord up and noticed that the wire had been cut. "Great. Just great!" she buried her face into her palm, then looked up. "Well, I guess the least we could do is get rid of these bulky costumes." she said. "We can't just go walking downtown looking like this." she took off her yellow hat with a brown stem on it. 

"Uh.. I can't." 

"Why not?" 

Seren blushed."I uh.. I didn't wear anything underneath."

"You didn't wear anything underneath?! But why wouldn't you-" 

"Polyester makes me sweat! You know that! Besides, I mean, I do have on my underclo-" 

"Whatever. So you just have to be a strawberry then." 

"Fine..." she pouted. "I like being a strawberry anyway." she whispered. 

"Seren, this is serious. We're stuck downtown, YOU'RE a strawberry, I'M a banana and we don't have any money!" 

There was a sound of screeching tires as a car approached them. A brown paper bag was thrown at them from the passenger's window. "Here you go." said an unfamiliar voice. The car never stopped, it drifted on a turn and started going back the opposite way.

"What's this?" asked Seren. 

"You know what it is." said the guy, poking his head out the driver's side window. He had brown, short hair and a unibrow. "Just take it." and the car increased its speed and sped off into the distance. 

Seren opened the bag to see stacks of cash. "Wow! People downtown sure are friendly." she said. "Hey! I just got an idea! I've heard about this guy that's famous for his German pastries. I heard that his brezels are number one in the State!"

"Wait, I don't know about this, Seren. Doesn't this seem a bit unusual that we were just randomly handed a full bag of money?" 

"What's so unusual about that? And who's to say that it's unusual in this area? People are pretty rich around these parts, so maybe that's just what they.. do?" Seren tried to justify the situation. 

"Yeah, I still don't buy it." 

"Hehe, good one."

"I'm not joking around, we don't know anything about this money." They heard a police siren and a few dogs barking at the noise."But.. maybe we should at least get from this spot into a safer, better lit place." said Xanthe

They started walking down the street. 

...

Two guys; One, a human dressed as a banana and the other, a gem dressed as a strawberry walked up to the same spot Seren and Xanthe were in just a few moments ago. "He's two minutes late." said the one dressed in the banana costume, looking at his watch. 

...

"Man, I can't wait to take a bite out of that brezel!" 

"Seren, we're not going to spend any of that suspicious money." 

Seren wasn't paying attention to her, looking around. "The brezel cart should be down here somewh-" Seren gasped. "Hey look! A clothing store! Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" she nudged Xanthe's arm with her elbow, a smug look on her face. 

"Oh, I don't know.. Buying some clothes with the mon-" 

"Buying some clothes with the money!" she shouted over her. She pulled on Xanthe's hand. Xanthe didn't budge. 

"Come on! What are you waiting for?" 

"At this point? ..Cuffs." said Xanthe. 

"Mm, kind of a dark joke, Xanthe." 

"How so? We are harboring money that could've came from anywhere. How are you not just the least bit of suspicious." 

Seren shrugged. "Perhaps it's due to my carefree, gullible, child-like, cheerful, serene" she giggled at the play of her name with the adjective. "optimistic and heedless manner." 

Xanthe stared at her, surprised that Seren listed off her exact traits. Then it sunk in. She actually _knows_ exactly how she is, but doesn't even bother being even a bit more mindful and attentive." 

"I just HAVE to have such a naive and ebullient sister." mummbled Xanthe. 

"You know you're happy to have me as a sisterrr." Seren cooed. "Now come on! Before it closes." Seren continued to tug on Xanthe's arm 

"Okay, fine." said Xanthe. "Let's just hurry up and get some clothe-" 

" Yes! We're going to have so much fun!!" Seren ran into the store and Xanthe followed behind. 

The shop was filled with various clothes; clothes from the 70's, clothes from the 80's, baggy clothes from the 90's and early 2,000's, revealing clothes, futurist-looking clothes, everything. After trying on a few clothes, Xanthe was still in her Xanthe-like mood, until she found a yellow, long, ankle-length jacket with high shoulder pads. Seren wasn't sure if Xanthe was having one of her memories or if she was simply staring at the jacket cool design, but she stood there, wide eyed before ripping it off the hanger. 

"There's just something about this jacket." she ended up saying, airily. After that, her mood seemed to improve bit by bit. 

Eventually, they found some clothes that they liked. Seren found herself a long, red dress and black pants. She kept her red dress shoes on. Xanthe wore the long, yellow high shoulder pad jacket she found earlier, a yellow shirt, dark brown pants and yellow, diamond framed shades. And she kept her yellow clogs on from her costume. They paid the man at the counter and left the store, with a now, much more relaxed and confident stride to their walk, holding their folded up costumes in their hands. A few feet down sat a dumpster on the side of an alley and they threw the costumes in it. 

"You know, I have to hand it to you, Seren." Xanthe said with a bit of bliss in her voice. "The shopping wasn't _too_ bad.. And you're right. Those shoes really do pull that look together." she dipped her head and pulled her glasses down to the top of her nose.

Seren laughed at the gesture. That was unlike Xanthe.. or at least extremely rare for her. "Hey, you hungry?" 

Xanthe tensed up a bit, looking at the bag. Then she relaxed her shoulders "..Brezels?" 

"You know it! We should be close by now. I think I can smell the brown sugar from here." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really tried to post two chapters, like I usually do, buuuut, I just didn't have enough time. Hopefully I'l be able to post the other one tomorrow.
> 
> Also that phrase from that Hawaiian guy "He who is on the canoe is responsible for the journey, whether he has a paddle or not." is not a real quote.. I just got it from Tito from Rocket Power xP
> 
> Anywhoooo.. Looks like Xanthe is finally cheering up a bit. That's great ;D *thumbs up*


	2. Downtown Laser Light PT. 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Xanthe and Seren are still stuck downtown while the play is still going on.

They walked a few blocks up and stopped at a crosswalk. 

"There it is." said Seren. 

There was a small brezel cart stand. A tall, medium built guy was putting some condiments away. They ran across the street to the cart. 

"Hello," Seren looked at his name tag smudged with batter and powdered sugar. "Mr. Teig! Have any more of them brezels?" 

"Sorry miss, I'm closing down shop for today." 

"Aw, what? Not even a schneeball or a strudel?" she frowned. 

He shook his head. "Nothing. I even sold the last buckwheat gateau." 

Seren looked defeated. She looked at Xanthe. "I guess we'll just have to come back some other time to try out his famous pastries." She sighed. "Whenever that'll be." 

Xanthe looked at Seren's saddened expression. This was all she kept talking about along the trip and she seemed to had really wanted to share the experience with Xanthe.

Xanthe stepped up to the cart, straightening her stance. "Sir, we've travelled ALL this way and traversed through this shady neighborhood for some of your "famous" pastries, just for you to turn us away?" 

"Ma'am, that's not my intention. This is the usual time I close." 

"But you're your own boss, right? You're telling me that you _always_ get off at this time, everyday?" 

He was trying to think of something to say, but it was true, there have been times where he stayed late, especially on Fridays and Saturdays due to large groups of college kids or businessmen, ready to start their weekend off. 

Xanthe found her opportunity. "EXectly. So why not just stay open a bit longer?"

He hesitated. 

"Come ooon. Do it for the two potential regulars, do it for your paycheck do it.." she looked at Seren. "Do it for this face." she grabbed Seren's face, squishing it. 

He sighed and chuckled. "You know, you remind me of my daughter. Very head strong and won't take no for an answer. Okay" he turned the oven back on. "Two brezel specials, coming up." 

Seren jumped up, "Yeahhh!!" she shouted. 

Twenty five minutes later, they were served two piping hot brezels with two cups of cheese and a small box of Spritzkuchen (Germn Crullers) to try out and all on the house for his two new guests. _So much for doing it for his paycheck._ thought Xanthe. 

They waited for the brezels to cool down before taking their first bite. 

"Wow, this really is good." said Xanthe. 

"Good?" Seren swallowed. "This is delicious! I'm so glad we were able to try these." 

"Yeah, I wasn't going to give up trying out these pastries that easily. Embarrassingly enough, if that hadn't worked, I was actually thinking about resorting to a more immature or prehistoric means of asking for it." 

"What were you going to do exactly? "Seren took another bite of the brezel, finishing it. 

Xanthe pinched a piece of dough off her brezel. "Banging on the table and chanting the word 'brezels' until he caved in and made us some." she ate the piece. 

Seren laughed and choked a bit on her food. When she caught her breath again, she said "That sounds like something I would do." She laughed some more, reaching for the box of Spritzkuchen. "I kinda wish we had done that approach instead." she smiled a toothy smile. 

"Of course you had rather done that instead." Xanthe shook her head, giving her a small smile.

Seren opened the box and held it up to Xanthe. Xanthe grabbed one, flakes of lemon frosting falling off the pastry. She gave a minute nod. "Thanks." and Seren sat the box back down, in between them. 

Seren grabbed one and took a bite. "WOW, this is even better!" 

"Yeah, not bad." 

Seren looked at their empty brezel wrappers and the box of Spritzkuchen. "Hey, Xanthe." 

"Hm?" 

Seren gave a cheeky grin. "Do you think these cover the five food groups?" 

Xanthe snorted. "Who cares?" she finished the Spritzkuchen and grabbed another one from the box.

.............................

"I'm a steak, I'm a steak, full of fat and protein." Harold sung, dancing with another teen." ""I'm a ham, you know who I am." the boy sung with him. "And if you're allergic to pork, pescatarian, vegetarian or vegan or keep halal or kosher." he listed, "then I'm not in your routine." 

The two bobbed and tap danced across the stage and then struck a pose. 

"Pssstt, pssst" 

They looked to their side to see Miranda. "Streeetch, streeeetch!" she said, raising her arms." 

Harold began to climb up on the boy's shoulder, kicking the boy in his face. 

Miranda turned around, her script clenched tightly in her hand. "I can't beLIEVE this is happening." she started walking away, in between the crowd of kids. Does anyone have any idea how hard I prepared for my role? For this play?! I ate NOTHING but dairy products for two weeks!" she held the script in both of her hands, twisting it. "If I ever get my hands on those two, especially the pink one 'cause I know it was her idea, I'll.. I'll.." she burnt her script up in her hands. She growled, aggravated. There was a loud thud and a some commotion from the audience. She turned around to see that Harold had tripped and landed on two people in the front row. 

..............

Xanthe and Seren were jogging down a dirt path. Junked cars, 8 foot tall dirt mounds, trees and colorful lights of all sizes decorated the area around them. They each had on a black headband and a black vest. 6 green sensor lights decorated their headbands and there were two sensor lights on the shoulder, two slightly longer sensor lights on the stomach and some sensor lights on the back of their vests. At the booth, they had also rented a black jacket and black pants to go over the clothes they bought earlier, to not get them dirty. 

With the game now in session, they were trying to find all of the flags for their team, as well as find a hidden prize that the player would be able to keep for themselves. They clutched their laser guns closely to them. So far, they managed to catch 3 flags, Xanthe having found all three. She had them tucked in her belt. Within the first 25 minutes, Seren had already been hit twice. One on her shoulder and once on her stomach.

"Where do you think that prize is?" whispered Seren. 

They jogged behind a mound and Xanthe crouched down. Seren crouched down beside her. 

"I'm not sure. Especially since they've scattered so many random debris. Who's to say what's the hidden treasure and what's just decorations for the area?" she looked around. "Come on, let's go." Xanthe jogged through some bushes and Seren followed her. The bushes stopped in a fine line, right in front of a rundown shed. 

"Well doesn't this look shady." said Xanthe. 

"But.. maybe the prize is in there..? Or another flag." Seren was about to take a step forward, but Xanthe put her arm out, stopping her. 

"This could be a trap." Xanthe went back in the bushes and crouched down, peeking through the leaves and Seren did the same. 

"Let's just wait here a bit to see if anyone goes in." 

Ten minutes later and just when Seren was about to speak up on how bored she was getting just sitting there, they seen two girls walking cautiously from the other side of them. One of them looked around and motioned for the other one to come with her. The both went into the shed, the door, making a loud creak and they hurried and went inside. 

"Let's just wait a bit more.." whispered Xanthe. They waited a few more minutes and the girls came back out unscathed and they walked away, still cautious as ever.

"Maybe they didn't find anything." said Seren. 

"Hm.. maybe so. Okay, now it's time for us to check it out and fast. I'll give us a quick turn around of one point five minutes. On the count of three, we go for the door." Xanthe positioned herself in a potential running stance. "One, two..." she looked around as much as she could through the bushes. "three!" she whisper shouted. Still crouching, she dashed to the shed and plastered her back to the wall with Seren close behind. 

Xanthe opened the door and they bolted inside. 

The inside of the shed was incredibly cluttered from top to bottom. Various objects lay thrown and stacked up everywhere, some of them having been torn and burned. 

"Our time starts now. Though with this place being so cluttered as it is, I'll bump up the time to 3 minutes. We'll have to hurry and scan the area for any valuables and hopefully try to find a replenishing kit for your health and for my laser gun. But first." Xanthe put her hand back on the doorknob and sent a spark of electricity onto it. She left her hand there for a few seconds before letting go. "There, that should alert us if anyone else is trying to come in. Okay, let's spread out." 

They parted ways and started rummaging quietly or as quietly as they could, around the shed. Nearly thirty seconds later, during her rummaging, Seren heard a crack under her foot. She stepped away to see a now a dull, cracked up, brown patch of flooring. Glass flooring, spray painted a dull brown to match with the rest of the floor. 

"Uh oh." she said to herself. She hoisted the laser gun up, just in case anything were to happen. "Uh.. Xanthe?.. I think I broke something." 

"You what!" she whisper shouted. She ran over to inspect the flooring. "Seren, what did you-" 

A bright red light started to shine through the cracks. They stood there for a bit, not knowing exactly what to do. A few moments later, Xanthe cautiously cracked the glass flooring even more and removed the pieces to reveal a red button. 

"Nothing ever comes good with pressing red buttons." said Xanthe. 

"But maybe it's a seeeecret passage way." 

"Mm.. I don't know.. Seren, no, wai-!" 

Seren had already pressed the red button. Xanthe stood up, raising her laser gun. 

A hole carved out of a brown moving box in front of them. 

"Told you soo." said Seren. She peered her head inside. "Careful." said Xanthe. 

Seren took a peek at what was inside. More junk. 

She pulled herself back out. "If I'm going in there, I'm gonna need some gear." 

"

We don't have time for that. We only have T-minus one point five minutes." said Xanthe. She turned around and flung her hand, electricity arced from her fingers and into the doorknob. 

Seren found a piece of rubber cord. "Well, can we at least use this? I can tie it around my waist and crawl in and look around while you wait out here and look out for any." she mimed some kungfu moves with her hands. "Hua, huaaa, potential threats." 

Xanthe shook her head at Seren's horrible moves. 

Seren tied the rope to her waist and crawled through the whole in the box. She stood up and started walking to the back. "Xanthe, it's so cool back here! It's like a dad museum!" 

"Yeah, yeah, just try to keep it down a bit, before you get us caught." 

Seren walked further down and squeezed between four thick mattresses, tripping and falling over some golf clubs on the other side of them. "Oof!" she opened her eyes and seen an object in front of her. She gasped and got up, sitting down on her knees, "Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Is this... A t-shirt cannon?! Sooo cool!" She held on to it and got up, continuing her walk to the back of the shed. In front of her, a few feet up was the end of the shed, but instead of a wall, there was a thinly-made fence. Beyond the fence was more of the laser tag field. She heard a scratching noise and she tucked the t-shirt cannon under her arm and held up her laser cannon. There was another scratching sound, on the side of her and she zipped around, pressing the button on her laser gun. The light from the laser shot out and she ended up hitting a huge, red, glass ball of some sort. A rat was seen scurrying away from the scene. 

Seren sighed a breath of relief and laughed to herself. "It was just a rat." She was about to walk away from the glass globe to inspect another area, but thought otherwise. It did look out of place compared to all of the other stuff that was in the shed. She walked slowly towards it, a low humming started coming from it. She ran her hand against the smooth surface. Nothing happened. 

...

"What do you mean you gave it to the wrong banana?" Seren overheard a guy ask behind the fence, and a few feet up from her. 

"Uhh.." said another voice. 

"Well, what did the banana look like?" 

The footsteps were getting closer to where Seren was. 

The humming from the red globe started to hum louder. Seren looked back at it. 

"Slim, yellow, spiky hair, and yellow clogs. She was with this pink girl." 

The humming grew louder and a vertical line appeared in the middle of the red glass ball. "Seren, do you hear that?" said Xanthe still on the other side of the box 

"Yeah, I think it's coming from..." she trailed off, staring at the red, glass sphere right in front of her. 

The vertical line opened up, showing an iris. It was a giant eyeball. Seren shrieked, falling back and dropping the t-shirt cannon and her laser gun. 

"Seren! Are you okay? What's going on?" 

"Hey!" 

Seren saw three guys staring right at her. "That's her! That's the pink one!" shouted the one in the banana costume. 

The red eyeball started to glow, as the three guys started ripping up the fence. 

Seren felt a tug from the rope and was pulled all the way back to the hole of the moving box. Xanthe ripped it open even more. "Seren! Are you okay? What happened? Where's your laser gun?" 

"Come on! We gotta get outta here!" she ran passed Xanthe and ran to the door. She grabbed the doorknob getting shocked. "Owch!!" she winced, fanning her hand and Xanthe opened the door for her and she continued running. Xanthe was running beside her. "Seren, what's going on?" 

"Xanthe! You're right! That was bad money! Bad, filthy money!" 

"What?" 

"I overheard the guy who the money was really meant for! And he and two other guys are coming after us! And not only that, but I.." she swallowed. 

"You what?" 

There was a loud crack and a red beam shot through the shed, shattering the roof, the force of the light of the beam soon obliterating the whole shed. The thunderous hum echoed throughout the area. "I think I may have unleashed something evil." 

"HOW are you always getting into trouble?!" Xanthe yelled. 

"I don't know! It just.. happens!" 

The eyeball started floating slowly in the air, the three guys slowly got up from the rubble and debris. "Oh, those girls are gonna get it now." said the one that had given them the money. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stay tuuuned for the next chapter coming.. I don't know when xP


	3. Downtown Laser Light PT. 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Welp, Seren has awoken the red eye.. Good job.

"First, we have to get away from this area." said Xanthe. A few teens started darting from tree to tree, mound to mound, mound to tree, etc. Some were crouching down and shooting their lasers at the red eyeball, thinking that it was another part of the game. There was a pulsating hum and the eye started to glow again. A red beam shot out from it and the eye moved, the beam damaging everything in its path. 

"Stop! It's not a part of the game!" shouted Seren. They ignore her and started firing their lasers at her and Xanthe. Their headbands and vest vibrated a few times. They lost. But that was the least of their worries.

They started running back to the vendors. There was a guy gawking at the eyeball, now in the sky. Another guy was in front of a microphone. He was announcing an evacuation of the area and for everyone to take shelter in the nearest safety bunks of the area and to NOT shoot at the red eye. 

"Dude, what is that?" asked the guy, still gawking. 

"I read about those things, but I didn't think they were real! That's a red eye!" 

"We need your help!" Seren blurted out upon reaching the counter. 

"You two need to take shelter!" said the guy, finally looking away from the sky. "And whatever you do, don't shoot at it! Pete here, says that it's clearly going after the lights." he gestures to the now empty field, now that everyone had ran for cover. The red eye was targeting the lights in the area, attacking the brightest and tallest mounds.

" That has to be a red eye that destroys light cannons." said Pete. 

"Light cannons? what are those?" asked Xanthe. 

"There are different types of red eyes. This one looks to be light sensitive to warm colors." 

Xanthe was about to repeat her question, when he cut her off. 

"Light cannons or laser light cannon, to be exact, were made to destroy red eyes. They're these cannons that are, well, shaped like cannons and.. shoot out laser beams." he started to clear the counter off and putting things away underneath the counter. "It's all in the name really." he stopped to roll up the sunshade that had been rattling in the wind. "So, they started making these type of red eyes to destroy the light cannons."

"Who's they?" Who made those light cannons and those red eyes? And why was this one in a shed?" asked Seren. 

The other guy started helping him to close down the vendor. Pete was in the middle of locking up the place, half talking to them, half focusing on bolting down the place. "Uh, the bad guys made the red eyes, I forgot what they were called, Home something? I don't know, I can't remember and uh, the people that were trying to defend their planets came up with the laser cannons, but then the bad guys just made better weapons to destroy those cannons." His coworker started to pull the gate down. "And I have NO idea what that is doing in the shed! Like I said, I didn't know that those things really actually real! I just read them in a library once, when I was bored. I can't even remember majority of the book." 

The wind started to pick up more. 

Xanthe heard something and turned around to see the three guys running after them. "Seren, I think I see the guys! Let's get out of here!" She pulled Seren into a run. 

"Hey!! You two need to go for shelter!" Pete shouted, closing the door behind him. He barely dodged a flying piece of debris, his co-worker, getting hit with a different piece.

.....

They ran out of the place and continued down a few streets to a small neighborhood filled with small, tight-knit built shops. They were all closed. "Down here." said Xanthe. She cut down an alley way and jogged her way down to a stop, panting, right in front of a small, quaint shop. The blinds were drawn, the door was cracked open and the lights were dimmed. "I think we lost them, for now." she didn't hear a response and she started looking around for Seren. 

"Seren, what are you doing?!" 

Seren was downstairs and opening a door to the dimly lit back shop."The door's open! Let's just hide in here!" Seren ran inside.

"Seren! You can't just RUN into random, dark buildings!!" Xanthe hesitated by the door. 

Seren poked her head out. "It's just a small little shop." she whispered. "We'll leave once the close is clear.. And it's not even that dark." She added the last part. 

"Have you not seen any of those slasher movies before?!" Xanthe asked 

.

Seren shrugged. "Not all the way through, no. The only few times I tempted to watch a scary movie, Nila was always there and every time we would start watching them, she would freak out and cry, so I would always have to turn it off.. But I assume that at least _half_ of the people lived at the end of the movie." 

Xanthe was about to correct Seren on her statistics when she heard a "I think they ran down that alley." It sounded like the guy in the banana suit.

Xanthe hesitated before running inside. They closed the screen and then the door and locked it. They stood there, facing the door, quiet. A few moments passed before Seren leaned up off the door. "Do you think they passed by yet?" she asked.

"I'm not sure. But I think we should wait a bit before heading back out." 

More silence, then Seren started chuckling.

"What's so funny?" Xanthe asked, annoyed.

"You were scaaared."

Xanthe got defensive. "I was NOT." she straighten up. "There's _scared_ and then there's _surprised."_

Seren chuckled more. "Then you were both."

Xanthe scoffed. "Seren, I have no reason to be scared of those two buffoons.. _I_ simply just didn't want to get caught up in whatever they were doing. I spared them by not fighting them and I decided to go for cover instead. Especially since you were with me.. It IS my duty to keep you safe."

Seren snorted. "No, you were totally scared. You were even scared of coming into the shop." 

"Oh, can it, Seren. I'm not afraid of anything! Unlike.." she didn't finish her sentence, looking at Seren with a smug look.

"What, me? Come on, I don't get spooked THAT easily." 

"いらっしゃいませ！" (Irasshaimase! "Welcome to my shop!") an older, womanly voice shouted from behind them.

They both snapped around. Seren screamed, her hands in the air. Xanthe had her fists up, already ready to strike.

"あっ！失礼します、。私はお二人を怖がらせるつもりはなかった.私は奥の部屋にいて資料を探していました. (A~tsu! Shitsurei shimasu. Watashi wa o ni-ri o kowagara seru tsumori wa nakatta. Watashi wa oku no heya ni ite shiryō o sagashite imashita. "Oh! Excuse me. I didn't mean to scare you two. I was in the back room getting some materials.") 

Their eyes followed the elderly woman cautiously, as she gingerly put two cans of brown clay and three different sized carving utensils on a smooth, brown table near the corner of the wall. "さ, なにかおさがしですか？(Sa, nanika o sagashidesu ka? "So, are you looking for something?")

Xanthe lowered her arms a bit, her hands, still balled up into fists. "I have no clue what she's saying." she whispered.

"Me either.. Man, I wish my friend was here. She speaks Japanese."

The elderly woman noticed their confusion. "あら、二人とも日本語しゃべれないの?" (Ara, futari tomo nihongo shaberenai no "Oh, you two can't speak Japanese?") she gave one of the warmest, genuine smiles and a gentle laugh. "Please, come in." she beckoned. "I was just about to close up the shop, but you two are still welcomed to look about the shop." Her accent was pretty strong. But with concentration, they managed to get majority of what she was saying.

"Oh, we're not here to look around, we're hiding o-owch!" Xanthe elbowed Seren. _Just tell her everything, why don't you?_ thought Xanthe. _Hopefully she didn't catch that._

"Hiding out? おっと (otto "Uh-oh")..Is that so?" she sat down in the chair by the desk. 

_Darn it.. she caught it.._

"The two of you shouldn't be hiding out anywhere or hiding out at all." she started rearranging the materials she had set down on the table. 

"We're not the bad guys here! Things just.. started going downhill out of nowhere." said Seren. 

Xanthe didn't stop her that time. Seren had already ratted them about them hiding out. 

"Everything was great." Seren continued. "We went downtown and had some fun, but now.. It's all, gone wrong." 

The elderly lady stopped what she was doing and looked at the two of them. "It seems like there is a bigger part of the story that you are not telling me. Perhaps that part is what has caused this snowball effect." 

Seren didn't say anything back to her. She was right. Seren had left out the part where they were given some money that wasn't even theirs. She left out the part where they were spending the money and she left out the part where she and Xanthe ran right after they seen the three guys. 

"Is there someone you have harmed in the past? Hmm? Someone you have wrong?" asked the lady. 

_Seren thought about it, looking back at what had happened: Running from the guys, playing a game of laser tag, going out to eat, buying some new clothes.. getting off of the bus downtown..then it finally clicked. Seren imagined Miranda at the play, the crowd booing. "My play, my play! My beautiful play!" sobbed Miranda, rocking forward and back, crying-_

_  
_

"Nope, can't think of a soul." Xanthe interrupted her thought

"Xanthe, you have to be kidding! Think of Miranda and her play and all the kids back at school we're letting down." 

Xanthe sighed "Yes.. There is that..Though should I have to remind you that it was _your_ little idea?" 

Seren ignored the comment "Come on! We have to set things straight! she turned to the lady. "Thanks for the enlightenment." She ran back outside and Xanthe followed her. 

The wind was dwindling from where they were as the red eye floated away from the 

"Oh yeah, that thing.." said Seren

They looked on. "How are we going to destroy it? We don't have one of those light cannon thingies. 

Not sure, but we have to lure it back to us." Xanthe looked around. "And away from the buildings." They ran further down through the alley and jumoed a fence into a field of dirt where houses used to be. Xanthe summoned her sword and held it up to the sky, a bolt of lightning flashed out of the sword above her. She held that position a few seconds as the red eye noticed her and started floating its way towards them. Xanthe stopped and she threw her sword. It struck the eye and disintegrated in mots of light. No damage. 

Seren looked at her with a puzzled look. Xanthe shrugged. "Was worth a shot." 

Debris flung around them, the red eye getting closer and closer to them. 

"There they are!" 

.

They looked to the right of them. 

The three guys were getting out of the car. They were putting on what looked to be a jacket made of steal and shoulder armor. 

The banana guy started walking up, adjusting the armored jacket. "Alright, you two, time to-hey! My hat!" he grabbed his hair, the hat already flying up, up and away. 

"Never mind your hat! They have our money!" said the strawberry guy. 

"But my favorite math teacher got me that hat-!" 

"Nobody cares! You can just get yourself another one!" said the driver that gave them the money. He turned to Xanthe and Seren. "With the money we get back from them." he grinned sinisterly. 

Xanthe squared her shoulder's, glaring at the guys in front of them. Electricity crackled around her fists. 

.............................

"I'm milk, nutritionally-rich milk, chocked with vitamin B12 and D. Have a glass of milk a day and grow healthy and strong like a tree~~." Blanca said blissfully to the audience, her arms outstretched to them. " But just beware of the growth hormones that they inject into our cows, this synthetic hormone that spurs milk production is something we should disallow." She started doing some interpretive dance. 

The audience was clapping and whistling at her graceful ballet-like twirls and jumps. 

..

Miranda was watching her and the audience's reaction backstage. _Well, at least it's not a TOTAL bust.. At least she's pretty okay. The audience seems to like her.._ Miranda thought to herself. Then she unfolded the play's program to look at the lineup list. The bread, cereal, rice and pasta food group was next and then the fruits. She looked at her watch. _8:12._ Only 28 minutes until the fruits were to perform. 

"I am ruined." Miranda growled "My life as a playwright is over.. How can I possibly..." 

Nila walked passed her, going over her script. 

_Unless.._ "Hey Nila, can you make duplicates of yourself?" 

"No...? I'm afraid not." 

Miranda let out an aggravated sigh. "Whatever, who's heard of a blue strawberry or a blue banana anyway." She pinched the ridge of her nose. 

"They do it all the time with sports drinks." 

Miranda scrunched up her face in an annoyed scowl. She turned away from Nila "So now we're just going to have ONE fruit perform?" she turned her attention to the rest of the teens chattering in the back. "Does ANYONE here know how to clone themselves?" she asked. Silence. "Anyone?" Nobody answered. "So you all are telling me, that NOBODY, not a SINGLE gem or hybrid can make duplicates of themselves?." They either looked down or away from Miranda, mumbling their 'no's'. 

There was some clapping from the audience and Blanca and two other teens, one dressed as an egg and the other, as a hunk of Swiss cheese walked to the back of the stage. 

"They STILL aren't here yet?" asked Blanca. "Something must be up. We need to leave." 

"I agree. But we don't even know where to look." 

Blanca gave her a smug look. "For someone who hasn't acquired the power to see gem aura's, no. But I think I can be of assistance." 

"Pfft, oh how could I had forgotten about that.." she gave a small smile. 

Blanca looked back at Miranda pacing back and forth in thought, then back at Nila. "Okay, as soon as the next group go up, and then-" 

"....-eal, rice and pasta food group!" they heard someone announce as Blanca was talking. The audience started applauding. 

"Now's our chance!" Blanca and Nila ran to the side steps of the backstage. "Wait." said Blanca. She pinched her costume. "There's no way we can run in these." she tempted to take her costume off, but couldn't reach the zipper. "Uh, can you?" 

Nila tried to stifle a laugh. "Yeah." she unzipped the costume and Blanca slid out of the it as Nila unzipped her costume from the front. They left their costumes at the foot of the stairs and opened the door leading to the hallway. The close was clear. They ran out the main doors and jogged a few feet down to be out of view of the school and stopped. 

Blanca closed her eyes and used her power. She sensed a lot of gems in the area, but neither of them being Xanthe or Seren. She tried harder, clenching her eyes tightly in concentration. "They must be way too far." she said, still trying. "I can't sense them anywhere." 

"What is that thing?!" shouted Nila. 

Blanca snapped out of what she was doing and Nila pointed at the sky. The red eye, far from them and levitating in the night sky. 

"I don't know what it is, but I have a bad feeling that it has something to do with Seren and Xanthe not being here. Let's go down there" 

Blanca started running, Nila, alongside her. 

Two bright yellow sparks of light zapped up towards the red eye. 

"Xanthe! they shouted in unison, picking up speed. Blanca passed her. 

"Go, I'll catch up. You're the one with the speed." 

"And leave you here with that thing in the sky? We don't know how fast it is or if it can teleport or what. We have to stay together." Blanca slowed her pace to match Nila's. _I just hope that we'll get there in time._ Blanca thought. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't worry, Blanca. I think y'all will get there in time *thumbs up*
> 
> ..Also.. I really hope that the Japanese dialogue is correct xP  
> ..So why did I write something that I don't know too much about? *shrugs* Eh, because I'm learning Japanese and I just really wanted to use it in the fic xP I just won't use it ALL the time, is all ;P


	4. Downtown Laser Light PT. 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Xanthe and Seren go up against the thieves.

Xanthe unleashed another lightning bolt and the guy dodged it. His white, grey armor clanking with his step. The red eye blasted the area a couple seconds later, following after the light from Xanthe's lightning strike. 

She summoned her sword and he summoned his. A long sword. He looked at her sword in comparison to his and chuckled. "This'll be too easy." he said in his gravelly voice. 

Xanthe didn't say anything. She swung her sword up in an en garde position as her rebuttal. 

He chuckled again. "You asked for it." he lunged at her, going right for her torso. She stepped back, and drew her sword down, catching his sword with hers. He quickly went for her arm, then her leg, then her torso again. She dodged all three. Her feet swiftly stepping side to side and forward and back. She kept a tight grip on the handle, slashing the sword up and down, blocking his attacks. No one was advancing. 

Xanthe discharged a bit of electricity into her sword and when their swords clashed again, the electricity surged to his sword, shocking him and making him drop his sword. It vanished in droplets of light. He held his hand as Xanthe slammed her sword down. He moved out of the way, her sword hitting his shoulder, the blade of the sword cutting a piece of his armor off. Another lightning strike and another dodge. A red beam of light came down again. A portion of the beam hit the armor and it ricocheted back up, the rest of the beam, burning the area around the piece of the armor. The reflected light struck the red eye, burning a part of its exterior. 

"The only thing hard enough to penetrate it is...itself." Xanthe realized. The guy summoned another sword and charged at her again and she turned her attention back to the guy, blocking his sword with hers. 

...

Seren was running away from the banana and the strawberry guy. "Come here you little pipsqueak." said the latter. 

Seren jumped on a nearby tree and started climbing up to the first branch. The money bag hitting her side and her leg as she climbed. She looked around. The area looking vaguely familiar to her. They leapt up, trying to grab her legs and every time, she would lift her legs up. The branch started breaking a bit. "Oh no, oh no, oh no.." Seren whispered to herself. The banana guy heard the crack and stepped back. He looked at the branch and laughed. The branched cracked again, but the strawberry guy didn't move. "Just a _little_ lower." he said. Seren lifted her legs up and held them up. 

"What are you doing!" said Banana guy. "Get outta the way!" 

"Huh?" he looked to the henchman. 

The branch cracked again and broke. Seren gave a short yelp as she fell, the guy breaking her fall.He was knocked out unconscious.

Banana guy shook his head, massaging his temple. "Incompetent piece of.." he cut his self off, remembering what the objective was. He stared right at Seren. 

Seren got up, looking at the guy that she knocked out. "Oooo, I am SO so sorry." she turned to the banana guy. "I didn't do it on purpose." backing away from him. She concentrated, trying to summon her shield.

The guy ran towards her and she bobbed away from him, and ran towards Xanthe, who was still busy with her opponent. The banana guy tackled her and grabbed her. Seren screamed, trying to kick him away. 

"Seren!" Xanthe was sword to sword with her contender. Then she finally realized a different approach. She had been using her weapon the whole time without thinking about an alternative. With a quick motion, Xanthe dissolved her sword, and grabbed his right wrist, and stepping back she used her other hand to grab onto the same arm. She pulled him in, his sword missing her side and now away from her body. She crouched down, grabbed his legs, wrapped her leg around one of his ankles and pushed forward, making him lose his stance. A startled "Whoa!" coming from him as he fell back. She let go and ran for Seren. 

Seren dropped the bag of money and grabbed at his arm, trying to pull it away.

_Tuck, bend and push away, tuck, bend and push away!_ she was thinking to herself. _Seren could've easily pulled away from him._ Xanthe caught up to him, the guy not factoring her speed. And she got behind him and he turned around, still holding onto Seren. Xanthe put him in a chokehold and he tried to get out of it. He spun around, crashing into a trashcan and knocking it down. The other guy was already up and running towards the three. Xanthe thought about shocking the guy, but with him still holding on to Seren, she would get shocked too. She also didn't want to shock a human, fearing that she would do too much damage. If he was a gem like the guy she was fighting _who was now a few yards away from them_ she would've easily shocked him. Though she never poofed anyone before.. Or _seen_ anyone get poofed. 

"Seren bend down to the left." 

"Ack! Huh?" Seren was trying to look up at Xanthe.

Xanthe fought her hold, getting a struggled grunt from the guy and she pulled back and to the right. "Bend down and to the left! Bend down and to the left"

Seren tried to break away.

"Down and push out!"

She bent down and twisted to the left, breaking away from the guy. Xanthe spun the guy around, hitting the tipped over trashcan and bumping him into the other guy, then throwing the banana guy a few feet, the opposite way. 

The wind started to die down.

"Are you okay?"

Seren was rubbing her throat. "Yeah..." she looked up. "Look out!"

The banana guy was dashing towards them. Xanthe summoned a sword and Seren swiped the trashcan lid from the knocked over trashcan behind her. Xanthe threw her sword and the guy leaned back, barely dodging it, smiling smugly as the sword flew past him. Seren threw the lid, his smug face coming back up to meet it with a hard bam! He fell back, unconscious.

"Nice shot." said Xanthe, helping Seren up.

"Thanks." she smiled sadly. "If only I had used my shield instead though.."

"Don't worry about that now. It'll come when it comes." she placed her hand on Seren's shoulder.

The last guy got up and Xanthe snapped back around to face him. He was walking slowly towards them. He summoned his sword. "I'm not finished with you two yet."

Xanthe stepped in between him. Not holding back anymore, she used her electricity, shocking the guy. She thought about stopping, not wanting to poof the guy. That's the reason she had held out that long from using it. But she couldn't risk anyone else hurting Seren-

"Xanthe, stop! I think that's enough!" Seren shouted. 

Why would she stop now? The guy tried to attack them, to attack her sister. She had to fight against this gem. She had to protect her sister. And everyone else he may hurt. She had to protect all of them. Every unruly gem gets penalized while everyone else in her empire gets protected at all costs.

Seren went up to Xanthe and was about to touch her, but thought otherwise. She could get shocked. Then, a bigger part of her mind didn't care. She had to snap Xanthe out of it. She grabbed a hold of her shoulders, shaking her. The electric travelled, shocking her. She clenched her teeth and grunting through the pain. "Xanthe, you have to snap out of it!"she said through her teeth.

Golden eyes glared at the guy in front of her, screaming out. 

"Xanthe!" Seren couldn't let go. Her fingers bent tightly to Xanthe's shoulder. The electricity coursing through her.

There was a puff of gray smoke and a shiny grey gem fell to the ground. 

Xanthe was still using her electricity, shocking the gem itself, eyes still fixated on the gem. 

"Xanthe!" Seren wheezed out.

A few seconds later and Xanthe snapped out of it. She looked shocked and stopped her electricity. Seren was able to unclench her hands and she fell back on the ground.

"She looked at the gem on the ground, then at her hands. "Did I really poof him?" she stared at her palms. "What happened?"she winced, holding her head as a sharp pain darted through her temple. 

"You poofed him with your electricity and you-" _went into this eerie trance_ "kept going with it." 

Xanthe turned around. "Seren! What happened to you?"

"Uh.." Seren got up slowly, hesitating on what to say exactly.

"I didn't do this.."she shook her head 

"No, no, no! It was my fault! I, uh..grabbed a hold of you while you were using your electricity." 

Xanthe didn't look convinced. 

"Honest." Then a beat later.. "Did you have one of your memories again? Like, you hurting someone..?"she said softly

Xanthe grimaced, turning away from her as a clump of shiny material caught her eye. She walked away and picked up the clump of armor beside the gray gem. "The armor didn't poof alongside his body. Somebody must've made him this." she said coarsely. "Come on, let's just get rid of this-" she looked up at the sky. Nothing was there. "It's gone." she turned around, still looking up. "Oh great..." she jumped up clearing 50 feet. "There it is!" 

She landed back on the ground. "It's pretty far away though. There's no way we'll be able to catch up to it."

 _You mean, there's no way that_ I would _be able to catch up._ Seren thought that was what Xanthe meant to say. Xanthe or Blanca would've been able to catch up with it in no time.

"We'll just have to think of another plan." said Xanthe.

Seren looked around again. An old basketball hoop on the other side of the field caught her eye and she finally knew why the area looked so familiar to her before. "I think I know how!" she blurted out. "Follow me!"

Xanthe followed her across the field, passed the basketball hoop and across the street. She stopped when she got to the other side."I want to say it's... This way!" She made a left and turned down at the first corner.

And where exactly are you taking us?"

"To Mr. Levi's motel of course!"

"You mean that quirky motel? How did you even find out about this back way?"

"Was running from a dog once. Ended up hoping some fence and ended up running around and finding myself right behind the motel."

"Of course you were running from a dog." Xanthe smiled, shaking her head.

"Wasn't my fault." Seren held her hands up.

They ran down a narrow alley way and Xanthe scrunched up her face. 

"Yeahh.. this place doesn't smell the best. But we're almost there."

They continued to run down the alley, making sure to not step in any kind of liquid on the ground.

"Aaaand, here we are! At the back of the motel! We gotta see if he can give us a lift."

"You don't even know if that car is fast enough.. And who says that he's even here or if he'll even agree to following that thing?"

"Xanthe, have a lil faith, will ya?" she gave a side smile. "Look, he's a good guy. Of course he'll do it." They round the corner and she saw his car parked in the parking lot. "And he's here!" she cheered. She tried to open the main door of the motel. "It's locked."

"Who locks the door of a motel?"

Seren shrugged. "Maybe they don't do late check-ins? I don't know how motels work."

"Well he's probably closing up the office.. But we don't know how long it'll be until he comes out. We don't have any more time to waste. Seren! What are you doing! Get down from there!"

Seren was climbing on top of the small car. "We need to get him to leave sooner. And nothing gets anyone running faster than hearing their car alarm go off, at night, IN a shady area, AT a motel." she started jumping.

"What if you end up breaking something in his car!" 

"It's a car. It's sturdy enough." she continued bouncing on the roof. "Any second now.. Come on, car. Sound the alarm already!" She jumped down a bit harder. "We have.to save. the world!" she slipped and fell, the alarm started going off and almost immediately, a heavy set guy threw the door open! "What's that! Who's there! I have a waffle iron!"

Seren was smiling and waving at him while Xanthe stood there.

"Oh, it's you." he sighed a breath of relief. "I almost waffled your face." 

"Sorry. We just needed to get your attention. We need your help!" said Seren. "Can you follow that-" she looked up, pointing to.. nothing. "Uh.."

"We need you to follow this thing called a red eye. I can tell you where to go. We need to leave pronto."

He looked a bit uneasy, looking at the armor in Xanthe's hands. "Something gem related?"

Xanthe gave a determined nod.

He sighed. "Let me just lock the door at least." 

Seren cheered and slid off the top of the car, down the trunk and to the ground. "Thank you SO much!" 

Mr. Levi locked the main door and pressed the button on his keypad to unlock the car door. "Alright everyone. Hop in." he said with a bit of worry in his voice.

Xanthe jumped up high, looking around for the eye. It had ventured a bit further way. _That thing isn't_ too _fast_ she thought. She landed back down.

She opened the front door to get in the car. "Seren, what-"

"I called frontsies first." she said casually.

Xanthe gave a deep sigh. She opened the door and threw the clump of armor in the backseat. "It's not even a real word." she got in the back and shut the door.

"So, uh, where to ladies?"

Xanthe pointed to the left of them. "It was heading over there. Towards our school."

"It must be because of those lights by the front of the school!" said Seren.

"Alright, buckle up you two." he pulled away from the parking lot and drove off onto the street.

They drove for a few minutes where Xanthe had pointed. 

"I think I see it." said Seren. They looked up. 

"That red thing in the sky?" he squinted.

Xanthe leaned forward, her seatbelt locking into place. She unbuckled it to slide herself towards the front, to get a better look. "Great. We're almost there."

They drove on for a few blocks until two figures caught Xanthe's eye. They were running down the street perpendicular from them. "I think I just seen Blanca and Nila." 

"What was that?" Mr. Levi looked back.

"You sure it was them? What are they doing here?" asked Seren looking back, trying to look out the back window.

"You have to back up. We have to go back and get them." said Xanthe.

"Oh boy, I hope we have room." he put the car in reverse and started backing up.

Blanca and Nila had turned down from the street they were on and was running the opposite way from the car. When the vehicle finally caught up and stopped in front of them, they stepped a few feet back, cautiously.

Xanthe rolled down the window. "Don't worry. It's us. Seren's in the car with me."

They sighed with relief. "Xanthe, what are you doing out here?" asked Blanca.

"Long story, just get in. Blanca, you can get in the front." she rolled the window up and motioned Blanca to the front seat. "Seren, get in the back. Blanca's coming." she put the armor on her lap, opened the door for Nila and moved over. 

"But I was here first."

Blanca opened the door.

"Yeah, well, Blanca's like twice your size. You'll take up less room."

Seren unbuckled her seatbelt and made an annoyed grunt as she climbed to the back to let Blanca sit down. "Blanca is no bigger than me. She's just really tall.. I don't see why that would make a difference. It's not like she would take up as much space, width-wise.."

"Just hurry up and sit back Seren." said Xanthe. "Okay, we're ready." she said to Levi.

He stepped on the gas, passing a few street lights. He tried to make the next one, but it turned red and he slammed on the breaks. Seren slid forward, hitting her knee on the center console. "AH!" she winced, holding onto her knee.

"Sorry about that. Are you okay, back there? That's why I always tell people to put on their seatbelt." a beat later. "Also, it's the law of Beach City." 

Blanca snickered. "And THAT'S why me 'just being tall' and being not that much bigger than you, still makes a difference." 

"I see what you mean." she mumbled. She sat all the way back, still rubbing her knee."Though then again, we couldn't just pulled the seat up." she grumbled. Xanthe and Nila tried to stifle their laugh.

"So, is anyone going to tell me what happened?"

Xanthe stopped snickering and looked at Seren, who was already looking at her. Seren was the first one to look away. "You see.." she began.

Xanthe cut her off "We were on our way to the school, but decided to ditch it, was given some random money, went shopping, went to eat, went laser tagging, ran into some bad guys" 

There was a gasp from Nila and Seren turned to put a hand on her shoulder.

"And then there's that thing in the sky, which is some kind of old gem weapon thing that we found in this shed in the laser tag field" 

Blanca turned all the way around to face Xanthe who was behind her seat. "You.. of all people, ditched school?"

Xanthe crossed her arms. "A school _play_ , yes."

"Xanthe, you still commited truancy." she held her finger up. "You abandoned your role for the school play.

Xanthe looked away from her stare. "That doesn't sound like you, Xanthe. You always fulfill your role in everything that you do."she said softly.

"I simply did something different."Xanthe tried to sound as agitated.

"It was my fault! I was the one that brought it up! Xanthe seemed.. I don't know, off today.. And I just wanted us to have a little fun." 

Blanca looked at Seren. "You could've done that a certain way.. Skipping school shouldn't had been one of them. And I'm still surprised that Xanthe." she looked back at her "would even agree to it. 

Xanthe gave a frustrated sigh. "Look, I just.. had one of those stupid memories while we were getting ready for the play and, I just wasn't in the best of moods. Seren brought up not going to the play and I would've said no otherwise.. but I felt that if I had went.." she looked down out the window, staring at the road. "and Miranda would've done something to make me tick like she always do, that it wasn't going to end well." she continued to look out the window." 

Everyone fell silent for a few moments. The two knowing exactly how she felt, the other one starting to know how she felt and the other one.. just didn't want to get into their conversation.

"Is that what happened with the gem guy?" Seren looked at Xanthe with sad eyes. 

Her expression grew sour, then it soften and she exhaled. "Initially yes. I was taking out my frustration on him, but during it I had another one of those dreams.. and I just couldn't stop." 

"Which could've happened to Miranda.."

Xanthe nodded solemnly. 

"Xanthe.." Seren grabbed her shoulder. Xanthe moved slightly, but not enough for Seren to think about letting go. She squeezed her shoulder.

"Uh.. Hate to ruin the moment here, but, uh.. We're right by that scary eyeball thingy.." he slowed the car down. 

They looked up. "That thing is huge." said Nila. 

"So, what are the plans for this? Are we destroying? Catching it? What?" asked Blanca.

"We're going to have to destroy it." said Xanthe. She gently moved Seren's hand from off her shoulder and unbuckled her seatbelt. "It's light sensitive. We'll have to use whatever one of our gem powers to lure it towards us." 

"Like energy orbs?" asked Nila.

"Yeah, that'll most likely work. Let's roll down the windows." said Xanthe. 

"Hold on, y'all aren't really going to-" Levi began.

They were riding right alongside the red eye. All three of them rolled down there windows; "Wait, wait!" said Levi. Nila and Blanca were both using their energy orbs and Xanthe was using her electricity. They stopped. "PLEASE don't do that in the car! Eating and drinking are okay, but I don't think Ol' Rusty here can take any more gem-related activity"

They both said sorry in unison. The red eye started to turn around slowly. "Okay, now you have to speed up before it attacks!" 

The red eye started to light up

_"What!" he shouted, his voice high pitched. He stepped on the gas as the laser blasted the area. He made a sharp turn, Seren falling into Nila, and he stopped the car._

"What the heck was that! You didn't tell me it could do that!" Levi screeched.

"Yeah, it's kind of its thing." Seren sat back up.

"Come on, we got it right where we want it. Blanca, Nila, follow me." 

They got out of the car.

Seren stopped the door. "But what about me?"

"Just stay with Levi. We'll handle this." 

"I can help too!" she jumped out of the car and slammed the door shut.

Levi looked at the Red Eye, facing away from him, its eye focusing closely on where it saw the lights. Levi's grip on the steering wheel tightened. "Oh boy, that thing's giving me the willies."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried to post the last two chapters, buuuut, it ended up getting pretty late. I needz my rest ~o~  
> Anywho, the last chapter is pretty much done and it's pretty short. I just have to do a quick proofreed and that's it. I'll try to post it a bit later.


	5. Downtown Laser Light PT. 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Xanthe and the gang go up against the red eye

"We'll need it to blast this." Xanthe held up the clump of armor. "All we need to do is hold it at an angle, so when the blast comes, it'll just bounce off and hit it." 

"That must be some kind of armor." said Nila.

"That's what I was thinking." Blanca looked over at Xanthe. "Where did you even get it from?"

"From one of the bad guys. When I poofed him, the armor didn't poof with it." 

"You _poofed_ him?!" asked Blanca, eyes wide.

"Well, yeah.. I-"

"Okay, so we just run up, y'all flash a few orbs and lighting strikes, it uses it's own power, we ricochet it back and we blast it." Seren said behind them.

"Seren, why aren't you waiting in the car." asked Xanthe, a bit relieved that Seren had cut in unknowingly and at the right time. 

"Come on, let me help. I helped last time with that corrupted hybrid. Let me at least be the one to hold the armor." 

Xanthe pinched the bridge of her nose. "Fine. Here " she dropped the clump of armor into Seren's arms. 

"Fewf! This armor has a bit of weight to it." Seren lifted, her knees bent.

"One of us is going to help you keep it up." said Xanthe. 

"No, no! I totally got this in the bag. You three can just lure it to me. I'll be fine." 

Xanthe gave a grunt, then turned to the other two. "Blanca, Nila." she nodded to them both and started running towards the Red Eye, with Nila, Blanca and Seren in tow.

They huddled together, Seren crouching down in the front, with the armor tilted up. 

"Seren, you'll have to hold up the armor as long as possible." said Xanthe. She summoned a bolt of electricity. Blanca and Nila both summoned their energy orbs. 

The red eye turned towards them. Seren quickly lifted up the shield, huffing and straining to keep the shield up a certain way. There was a low hum and a burst of light.

The light struck the shield hard and Seren was pushed back into the ground, the weight of the light and the shield tacking and holding her into the ground. She grunted, trying to push the shield back up. 

"Seren needs help. Xanthe, Nila, try to keep it up a bit more. We're cracking it." Blanca ran over to Seren and pushed the shield off of her. 

"Blanca!" Seren shouted, smiling.

The surface of the Red Eye started crumbling and falling apart.

"Almost there." Xanthe said through her teeth.

More cracks formed, and then there was an explosion, bits and pieces of the Red Eye going everywhere. 

Nila ducked down, blocking her head with her head and Xanthe stood her ground, her arms, blocking her face as she looked for any flying debris. She kicked one that was flying towards a crouching Nila.

The debris settled down after a few moments and Seren finally opened her eyes to see the world in white. She looked up. Blanca was looking around the area. "Okay, I think that's the last of it." she unsummoned her bubble and helped Seren to her feet. 

"That was the first time I've ever been inside your bubble.. It's quite cozy." she added. "If only I could do that." Seren had stars in her eyes.

"You did manage to summon a shield once. Perhaps you could summon a bubble as well." 

"Buuut, let's just focus on you summoning your shield first." said Xanthe.

Seren pouted. "Aaanyway..Now that that thing's been blown to smitherines, I guess we kinda saved the world.. again." Seren nudged Xanthe in her side.

" 'Saving the world' is kind of a stretch."

"Either way, we still helped out in a big way.. TWICE." Nila smiled softly. "And that's pretty nice."

"I think Xanthe just wants something more intense and more of a challenge." Blanca had a smug look on her face.

"Oh please, Blanca. Nothing is _truly_ a challenge for me."

A car drove up and stopped beside them. The drivers side window rolled down. "That was pretty wicked." said Levi. "I've never seen anything like that! I mean, gem stuff, yes, but _that?_ " he shook his head. "Now that's another league of its own." 

"Yes, yes it is." Xanthe held her head up high, chest out and her fists on her waist.

"Xanthe." Nila playfully shoved her. "Mr. Levi. You flatter us." 

"It's true. Anyway, now that that's all over, I should really take you all back home. It's getting pretty late."

They got into the car. "Oh! We can't!" said Seren. " We have to go back to the school play! We..still have time, right?" she looked at Xanthe, then turned to Mr. Levi. "What time is it?"

He checked the time on the analog screen of his car. "Quarter past eight." 

"Okay, we're cutting it pretty close, but I think we can make it! Think you can get us to the school in about 20 minutes?"

"I can try." he turned down a street and drove down the main road.

"Oh no." Seren whispered, turning to Xanthe. "We forgot the money back at the field." 

"Yeah, I'm well aware of that." said Xanthe. "But there's nothing we can do about it now."

Seren looked at their black attire, covered in mud. "Aaaand we probably also have to take these clothes back.."

"Hey, Mr. Levi?" Xanthe asked. "Think we can stop by this clothing store? I don't know the name of it.. but it's a few blocks up. We have to pick up our costumes." 

"Sure thing." he pulled off at the green light and continued down the road. Two ambulances and a police car drove down the opposite way.

Xanthe turned to Seren. "I just remembered.. disgustingly enough, we have to retrieve our costumes from the dumpster." she grimaced. " And the laser tag place is too far and it's probably on lock down anyway. So we'll just wash these clothes and give it to them another time." 

Seren nodded. "Okay." she leaned back in the seat, taking off the laser tag head band to scratch her head. "Wow, I haven't seen a red eye that bad since the time Sterling infected everyone in his workplace with it."

Nobody responded.

"Eh?.. Eh?" Seren made a face. "Get it? It's a pun." 

"That's _pink_ eye, Seren." said Blanca.

"Oh.. yeah.."

..

Mr. Levi parallel parked and Xanthe and Seren got out. 

Seren looked at the store. "Do you think we should return the other clothes as well?"

"Sounds like the right thing to do." Xanthe grumbled.

"But I have to get my costume out the dumpster first." 

Xanthe was about to ask why, but then she remembered why Seren had to. 

They took the costumes out from the smelly dumpster, went inside the store and returned the clothes, Xanthe having a hard time returning the high shoulder padded jacket. They put the costumes back on and got back in the car.

"Did you two really take the time to buy something?" asked Blanca.

"We were returning the clothes we bought earlier." said Xanthe.

"And dare I ask.. Did I.. just see you two take _out_ your costumes from the garbage.. and put them on?..Really?"

"Well, we have to have them on for the play." shrugged Xanthe. "I'm trying not to think too much about it." 

"Well, you reek.. And sitting in Mr. Levi's car no less." 

"Oh, don't worry. I was going to have this car thoroughly washed and detailed later this week anyway."

Nila held her nose, leaning towards the window and folding her legs to not touch Seren, though with the size of the car, she was still touching her. She pulled a small bottle of perfume and sprayed it three times.

"It's not _that_ bad." Seren folded her arms.

As they were driving away, they seen a middle aged man and woman and their daughter outside of their car. Camping gear laid on top of the car. The car was tilted up on the jack as the wife tried to change the tire. 

"Can we stop for them real quick?" Seren asked Levi. 

He stopped the car and Seren rolled the window down. The family looked up. Seren pulled out the cash they got from the clothes and held it up for them. A smug look on her face. "Here. For you guys."

The wife took the money slowly and Seren waved them goodbye as they drove off.

She looked at the cash in her hands, then back at the car driving away. "Woooow. People downtown sure are friendly." she smiled. 

..

They arrived at the school ten minutes later and Levi pulled into the parking lot. "Welp, this is us." 

They got out of the car. "Thanks so much again for the ride." said Nila.

"Aye, it was nothing. You four enjoy the rest of your night." 

They waved him off goodbye as he drove off, the windows still down in his car.

They entered the school and ran back to the auditorium. The small intermission was almost over. Blanca put her milk costume back on and went to the back of the stage with the rest of the food groups and Nila put on her blueberry costume and went up the steps to the side of the stage to meet up with Xanthe and Nila. She stopped them. "Wait!" They turned around and she sprayed them down in perfume. They started choking. "AH! Some of it got in my eyes." Seren put her hands over her eyes.

"Goodness, Nila. You didn't have to spray THAT much." Xanthe stepped a few steps back, coughing.

"Nonsense. I didn't even spray that much. Now straighten up you two. We're about to go up next." Nila straightened her blue hat.

Miranda was on stage. She cleared her throat. "Ladies and gentlemen, ...there will be a small change in the fourth act.. Actually, a big change.. as we won't be having it." 

There were mumbles of protest amongst the audience.

"Yes, I know, I know. But it seems that _some_ of our food groups are not as dedicated as the rest of us-."

Seren, Nila and Xanthe ran on stage. "We're here! We're here!" shouted Seren.

"THERE you two go.." she said chillingly at them. "And where were you?" she asked Nila.

"Stepped out for a bit." Nila held her hands up in a placating gesture.

Miranda glared at them, then turned back to the crowd. "Okay folks!" she said in a mockingly mirthful way. "Looks like we actually WILL be doing our last act after all! Put your hands together for our Fruits!" she started clapping with the audience, as she walked off the stage and ran to the back with the other food groups. 

Nila, Xanthe and Seren ran to the center of the stage. "It's fruits! It's fruits! That really makes us toots! It's fruits! It's fruits! That give us all a hoot!" they went towards the back of the stage, by the curtains. "It's not like other food groups aren't impooooorTANT!"

The curtain raised up to show all of the other food groups. They walked alongside the fruits. "In fact, you need us all to make your fingernails and eyes and organs-" they all sang. 

"It's fruits! It's fruits! You have to have your fruits! That's what the folks with scurvy say!!!" Xanthe, Seren and Nila belted out. " 'Cause it's fruits! Us fruits! That really makes us siiiiiiiiing!!!!" Nila held the note. 

"Show off." Miranda grumbled under her breath as she twirled with four other students.

....

"And that's the end of our plaaaaaaay." They knelt down and did jazz hands. The audience stood up and started clapping.

The students started to exit stage right. "See, that wasn't _too_ bad, right?" asked Seren.

"No.. It wasn't that bad." said Xanthe. "But I still wouldn't want to do another one of these plays again." she added.

Seren smiled. "Suit yourself. But _I_ for one, thought it was pretty great. Especially the twiiiirling part." she tried to imitate the twirl from earlier and she lost her balance and fell forward, grabbing ahold of the curtain lever. She pulled it down and the curtains came down, falling on Miranda.

"Seren." she growled. The students started laughing. "This night just got ten times better." Xanthe chuckled.

Miranda struggled to get up, her costume making it hard for her to push up. 

"...and refreshments are held in the gymnasium. You all did great out there." they heard the last end of the announcement from the principal.

There was a huge burst of noise as the kids ran out of the stage to get to the gym.

"Come on, before everyone gets all the good stuff." said Xanthe. She ran out the door with everyone else.

"Uh, yeah.. I'll catch up." she turned back to Miranda who was crawling out from underneath of the curtains. "You're gonna get it, you pink pipsqueak!" she growled.

"Uh oh!" Seren turned for the door and opened it. "Wait up!" she shouted.

"Oh geez." Miranda grumbled, rolling her eyes. She ran after her.

"Whoaa." Seren slipped on a nearby puddle of water where the janitor was still moping. She rolled and got up, a part of her clothes wet from the floor.

Miranda was running down the hall after her.

The janitor placed the wet floor sign down and held his hands up. "Wait! Wait! he shouted.

Seren looked back to see Miranda ignoring the guy. She jumped over the puddle of water and sped up. "Oh jeez." Seren said under her breath. She turned her attention forward, almost at the opened doors of the gym.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stay tuned for episode 3:  
> Courtney invites herself over for dinner at their house. At the same time, Seren meets an elderly prankster named Maude and Blanca gets overprotective and wants to break up the dynamic duo.


End file.
